And I took the little book out of the angel’s hand, and ate it up; and it was in my mouth sweet as honey: and as soon as I had eaten it, my belly was bitter.
And as soon as I had eaten it, my belly was bitter – The effect immediately followed: that is, as soon as he was made acquainted with the contents of the book, either, as above explained, requiring him to deliver some message of woe and wrath which it would be painful to deliver, or that the consequence of receiving it was to bring on bitter persecutions and trials.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 10. It was in my mouth sweet as honey] There was in it some pleasing, some unpleasing, intelligence. I read of the consolations and protection of the true worshippers of God, and did rejoice; I read of the persecutions of the Church, and was distressed.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
And I took the little book, and ate it up; according to the command, Rev 10:9.
And it was in my mouth sweet as honey; as it was the revelation of Gods will.
And as soon as I had eaten it, my belly was bitter; but when he came to think upon it, it was either so mysterious that he could not comprehend it, or the matter of it was so sad that it gave him great trouble.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
10. the little bookSo A andC, but B, Aleph, and Vulgate, “the book.”
was bitterGreek,“was embittered.”
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And I took the little book out of the angel’s hand, and ate it up,…. As he was bid to do:
and it was in my mouth sweet as honey; so is the Gospel in the mouth of a faithful minister of it, who has a spiritual knowledge, and a savoury experience of it; and so it is in the mouth of an understanding hearer, who finds it, and eats it, to the joy and rejoicing of his heart; and so this little book of prophecy being looked into, read, and considered by John, the first taste and knowledge he had of the things contained in it were exceeding grateful and delightful; the view it gave him of the glorious state of the church, and kingdom of Christ on earth, filled with unspeakable pleasure:
and as soon as I had eaten it, my belly was bitter; so the ministration of the Gospel occasions bitterness, grief, and sorrow, to the preachers and professors of it, through the persecutions that attend it, the obstinacy and hardness of men’s hearts against it, and its being the savour of death unto death to many that hear it; and so the little book of prophecy, upon a perusal of it, giving to John a view of the witnesses prophesying: in sackcloth, and of their bodies being killed, and lying exposed in the street of the great city, and of the church’s flying into the wilderness, and continuing there for a time and times, and half a time, and of the barbarities and cruelties exercised on the saints by the whore of Rome, whom he saw made drunk with their blood, made his belly bitter, or filled him with sorrow, grief, and pain.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
I took–and ate it up (— ). Second aorist active indicatives of the same verbs to show John’s prompt obedience to the command. The order of the results is here changed to the actual experience (sweet in the mouth, bitter in the belly). The simplex verb (I ate) is now used, not the compound (I ate up).
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
1) “And I took the little book,” (kai elabon to biblaridion) “And I took the little (small) scroll,” in obedience to the divine voice, Rev 10:9.
2) “Out of the angel’s hand,” (ek tes cheiros tou angelou) “Out of the angel’s hand,” as he gave it over, delivered it to me as a gift from God, Heb 1:14.
3) “And ate it up,” (kai katephagon auto) “and ate it,” swallowed it down, devoured it, or absorbed its message. Blessed are those who still do this, Joh 5:39; Act 17:11; 2Ti 2:15; 2Ti 3:16-17; Act 20:32.
4) “And it was in my mouth sweet as honey,” (kai hen en to stomati mou) “And (while) it was in my mouth (hos meli gluku) it (tasted) sweet, similar to honey,” assured eventual deliverance for Israel was sweet to John, as well as the triumph of the church, Dan 12:1; Dan 12:3; Dan 12:13; Rev 7:4; Rev 12:6-7; Rev 12:14; Eph 3:21; 2Co 11:2; Rev 19:5-9.
5) “And as soon as I had eaten it,” (kai hote ephagon auto) “and as soon as I had eaten, devoured, swallowed, or consumed it,” when I had comprehended the meaning of the content message of the little scrolI, book, or booklet, Dan 12:9-10; 1Th 5:1; 1Th 5:4-5.
6) “My belly was bitter,” (epikranthe he koilia mou) “my stomach was made bitter, made to ache, to contract. Eze 2:8-10, for the lamentations, mournings, and woes yet to be on my people Israel in the latter days of the tribulation the great, Mat 24:14-22.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
(10) And I took . . .The Evangelist takes the roll, as he was bidden, out of the angels hand, eats it up, and finds it, as he was told, in his mouth as honey, sweet. In this his experience resembles that of Ezekiel, who found the roll in his mouth as honey for sweetness (Eze. 3:3). So the Psalmist could rejoice in Gods words and Gods law as sweet, sweeter than honey and the honeycomb (Psa. 119:103; Psa. 19:10). He who is ready to endure bitterness in his fidelity to God must not only be interpenetrated by divine teaching; he must have also realised its sweetness, or else, however pleasant his words may sound, they will lack the sweetness which is as needful to the words of the teacher as to the songs of the poet. But the after effect of the sweet-tasting roll is bitterness. Ezekiel makes no mention of this bitterness; yet we know how much his fidelity to the words he loved so well must have cost him when he was bidden to arm himself with a flinty determination (Eze. 3:9-14; Eze. 2:6-7), and the patient courage of one whose lot was among thorns and briars and scorpions. It must always be so. The love of Christ may constrain men, but the very ardour of their affections must bring them through tribulation, and may make them as outcasts, defamed, persecuted, slain. The flaming zeal to emancipate mankind from thraldoms, follies, and ruinous sins may stir the soul with a holy joy; but there come moments when men are almost tempted to turn back, and to think that they have undertaken a hopeless task, when they find how slow is their progress, and what new and unexpected difficulties arise. Such was the bitterness which Moses felt: Why is it that Thou hast sent me? For since I came to Pharaoh to speak in Thy name, he hath done evil to this people; neither hast Thou delivered thy people at all. The most enthusiastic souls who love their fellow-men, and who feel how sweet and high is their calling, perhaps feel most of this bitterness. Their very love makes all failure very bitter to bear; yet is it through this martyrdom of failure that the noblest victories are won.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
10. In my mouth sweet Since it is sweet to possess the prophetic gift in the mouth.
In my belly bitter From the bitterness of the scenes and events which the prophetic gift discloses in the future. Gratifying and honourable was the prophetic office; painful and trying its exercise among men.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Rev 10:10. And ate it up, &c. See Jer 15:16. Our blessed Saviour uses the same metaphorical expression with the prophet and St. John, when he speaks of himself as the bread of life, in many passages of the sixth chapter of St. John’s Gospel. The author of the Observations on sacred scripture remarks, “that, delicious as honey is to an eastern palate, it has been thought sometimes to have produced terrible effects. So Sanutus tells us, that the English who attended Edward I. into the holy land, died in great numbers as they marched in June to demolish a place; which he ascribes to the excessive heat, and their intemperate eating of fruits and honey. This, perhaps, may give us the thought of Solomon, according to the literal sense, when he says, It is not good to eat much honey, Pro 25:27. He had before, in the same chapter, mentioned, that an excess in eating honey occasioned sickness and vomiting; but if it was thought sometimes to produce deadly effects, there was a greater energy in the instruction. However that may be, this circumstance seems to illustrate the prophetic passage before us, where the book is said to be in the mouth sweet as honey, but bitter after it was down; producing pain bitter as those gripings which the army of Edward felt in the holy land, from eating honey to excess: for of such disorders as are the common effects of intemperance with regard to fruits in those climates, Sanutus appears to be speaking; and the bloody flux, attended with violent pains in the bowels, is well known to be their great complaint.” See Observations, p. 161.
The prophesy before us was to reveal the providences of God during the period of the seventh angel; in which, as there was a revelation of great opposition to true religion, and persecution of the faithful professors; so was there also a revelation of divine protection during the time of trial, and of the sure accomplishment of the promised glorious and happy state of the church in the end. The meditation of such a state of providence might well occasion a mixture of joy and grief in the apostle’s mind, as it is likely to do in the minds of all who so understand and consider it
Inferences.If other parts of this chapter should seem to be less pregnant with important practical instructions, perhaps the design was, that we might be engaged to fix our entire and undivided attention on the awful words of this illustrious angel; whose appearance is described in colours so exceedingly beautiful and striking; with the radiance of the sun streaming from his countenance; the variegated colours of the rainbow encircling his head; of a stature so vast and majestic, that he at once bestrode the earth and the sea; with his hand solemnly lifted up to heaven; with a voice awful as thunder, appealing to the venerable name of God, the Creator of the heavens, of the earth, of the sea, and of all their various inhabitants, in order to add the sanction of an inviolable oath to a declaration, which in itself, from such a divine messenger, was worthy of absolute and entire credit; a declaration, that time should be no longer: which is a certain truth, in the most sublime and interesting sense of which the words are capable. Time, as distinguished into days, and weeks, and months, and years, by the revolution of the heavenly luminaries, when the most replendent of these are extinguished in their orbs, as they quickly will; when the sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood; time shall then, I say, be absorbed in an immeasurable eternity. And O, what an eternity! An eternity, either of perfect and inconceivable felicity, or hopeless and remediless misery.But, besides this general construction, there is an important sense in which the proclamation of this celestial herald shall be fulfilled, with regard to individuals; that time shall be no longer; the time of divine patience in waiting upon us; the time in which we shall be continued under the sound of the gospel, and the offers of mercy, and the means of salvation; the time in which we shall be conversant with these scenes of mortality, and with the persons who are here most familiar to us, at least in the present circumstances of their being. The period, during which we are to inhabit this earth, and enjoy our spiritual advantages, or our worldly possessions and pleasures, is confined within very narrow limits. The oath of this mighty angel is, perhaps, just ready to be accomplished, and time is closing, and eternity is opening upon us. O that we may consider time and all its concerns as very shortly to vanish, that our thoughts and our cares may be directed more and more to our own eternal interest, and to that of our fellow-creatures! The Judge is even at the door: let us endeavour therefore to be ready, let us improve every transient moment to the purposes for which it was given us; and in these views of the brevity of time, and the importance of preparing for eternity, let us detest all the pleasures and allurements of sin; for they will soon appear like the mysterious morsel of the apostle, bitter as wormwood in the belly, though with deceitful and fatal indulgence we may, for a few moments, have rolled them, like a sweet morsel, under our tongues; vainly desiring to prolong those pleasures, which can serve only to add more keen and exquisite sensibility to our future pain.
REFLECTIONS.1st, Another vision intervenes between the sixth and the seventh trumpet, as before between the sixth and seventh seal.
1. A glorious angel, even the same divine Personage whose voice was heard before, giving the angels their commission, (chap. Rev 7:2.) comes down from heaven clothed with a cloud; and around his head the rainbow glowed, the token of his mindfulness of his covenant with his faithful saints, even in the darkest ages: his countenance was like the sun, cheering the hearts of his people; and his feet as pillars of fire, firm to support the interests of his sacred cause, and terrible to tread down her enemies. In his hand he held a little book, the last volume of the roll which he had opened, and was about to reveal the contents of it; and, setting one foot on the earth, and the other on the sea, to intimate his universal dominion, he uttered his voice loud as the lion roars, and instantly seven mighty thunderings, the emblems of the judgments about to follow, echoed back the sound. Being about to minute down the articulate denunciations uttered by these thunders, St. John is restrained by a voice from heaven, saying, Seal up those things, and write them not.
2. The angel that stood on the earth and on the sea, then lifted up his hand to heaven, and, with a solemn oath, sware by the great Creator of all things, that there should be time no longer; but that when the time, and times, and half a time, (Dan 12:7.) are expired, the 1260 years of the reign of Antichrist, then an end shall be put to the Anti-christian tyranny for ever; and that within the period of the seventh trumpet, the mystery of God should be finished, his design of grace accomplished, and his great salvation spread from pole to pole; as of old had been shewn to his prophets, (Dan 7:25-27; Dan 12:6-7. Zec 14:9.)
2nd, The same voice which he had heard from heaven,
1. Commands him to go and take the volume out of the angel’s hand, who stood on the earth and sea, who gave it to him, and bid him eat it up, and digest the awful contents therein revealed; telling him, that, though sweet in his mouth, it would make his belly bitter; desirable as it was to know the events of futurity, yet the awful desolations about to come upon the earth, and the sufferings of the church, could not but inwardly grieve and afflict him.
2. The apostle obeyed, and found the word true which had been spoken; sweet as the book was in his mouth, even as honey, his belly was made bitter as gall, and the burthens he foresaw deeply afflicted him; but he must not conceal the secrets communicated to him; he is commanded to prophesy concerning the events which must successively come to pass before many people, and nations, and tongues, and kings. Note; Preachers must first themselves digest, and be deeply affected with, the truths which they deliver to others.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
10 And I took the little book out of the angel’s hand, and ate it up; and it was in my mouth sweet as honey: and as soon as I had eaten it, my belly was bitter.
Ver. 10. Sweet as honey ] The word is so to the spiritual palate; whereas to the carnal it relisheth no better than the white of an egg or a dry chip. Luther said he would not live in paradise without the word; at cum verbo etiam in inferno facile eat vivere, but with the word he could live even in hell itself. See Psa 19:10 ; Psa 119:103 ; Jer 15:16 .
My belly was bitter ] By reason of the trials and tribulations that usually follow upon the faithful preaching of the word. Opposition is Evangelii genius, saith Calvin. And, Praedicare est nihil aliud quam derivare in se furorem mundi, saith Luther; To preach is to get the ill-will of the world.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
out of. App-104.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
angel
(See Scofield “Heb 1:4”)
Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes
sweet: Psa 19:10, Psa 104:34, Psa 119:103, Pro 16:24, Eze 3:3
my belly: Eze 2:10, Eze 3:14, *marg.
Reciprocal: Gen 41:21 – eaten them up Num 5:18 – the bitter water Rev 10:2 – a little
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Rev 10:10. The effect of eating the roll is next described. It was, says the Seer, in my mouth sweet as honey, and when I had eaten it my belly was made bitter. The double character of this effect was not produced by different parts of the contents of the book, as if these were partly sweet partly bitter, partly of joyful partly of sorrowful tidings. The contents of the book are one; are all, like those of the larger book-roll, judgment, are all mourning and lamentations and woe. For the same reason also the double effect cannot be ascribed to the double character of the Seer, the sweetness being felt by him as a prophet, the bitterness as a man. He is a prophet throughout, and his human feelings have been so identified with those of his Lord that whatever is the Lords pleasure is also his. Equally impossible is it to think that the bitterness was due to the thought of those persecutions which he and other faithful witnesses would have to endure in making known their message to the world. Believers feel that while they suffer they are walking in the steps of their great Master, and that they are suffering with Him. In the midst of suffering they learn to glory in His cross, and to welcome it as a gift of the Divine love (comp. Php 1:29; 1Pe 4:13). The bitterness proceeds from the nature of the tidings. The little book-roll dealt with the fortunes of the Church, not of the world; and the fact that it did so made the first taste of it sweet. To learn that the Lord had chosen out of the nations a people for His name; that He loved the Church, and gave Himself up for it, that He might sanctify it, having cleansed it by the washing of water with the Word, that He might present the Church to Himself a glorious Church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish;such tidings could not fail to be sweet. But then to learn still further that that Church would forget her Lord, yield to the seductions of the world, and become lukewarm in the service of One who had bought her with His own precious blood, was bitter. Yet these were the contents of the book now eaten by the Seer. No wonder, therefore, that though sweet as honey in his mouth the little book made his belly bitter.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Verse 10
In my mouth sweet, &c.; denoting that the contents of the book, which at first view seemed pleasant or consoling, afterwards awakened feelings of pain and distress. None but conjectural applications of the symbols of this chapter have been made.
Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament
John may have actually eaten the little book. [Note: Thomas, Revelation 8-22, p. 74; Mounce, p. 214.] Or he may have only devoured it metaphorically. This revelation was pleasant at first because it was a revelation from God (cf. Psa 119:103). Still, as John meditated on it and comprehended the fearful judgments that it predicted, he became distressed. The reason for reversing the order of these effects, compared with Rev 10:9, may be to place the bitterness in closer proximity to the judgments that follow. [Note: Thomas, Revelation 8-22, p. 74.] The little book may have contained the revelation in Rev 11:1-13. [Note: F. F. Bruce, "The Revelation of John," in A New Testament Commentary, p. 649; Charles, 1:260; Lilje, p. 158; Charles R. Erdman, The Revelation of John, p. 99; Martin Rist, "The Revelation of St. John the Divine," in The Interpreter’s Bible, 12:442; Mounce, p. 216.] Or it may have contained more (perhaps chs. 11-19) or all of what follows in Revelation. [Note: Thomas, Revelation 8-22, p. 74.]